


The Way You Remember Me

by brumalbreeze



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-11 23:49:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4457216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brumalbreeze/pseuds/brumalbreeze
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an uncomfortable confrontation between Nagisa and a mage he tries to pickpocket, things get a little out of hand. Thankfully, he's able to get out of the situation with nothing but his ego bruised. But when a night-time quest takes Nagisa beyond the gates of the city, he once again finds himself in a place he'd rather not be at...</p><p>(A contest entry written for the <a href="http://www.reigisacelebration.tumblr.com">ReiGisa Celebration</a>. Only the first three chapters of this fantasy RPG AU will be posted, as it is planned to be made into a fan novel and put up for sale upon its completion.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As written in the summary, this fic is an entry for the [ReiGisa Celebration](http://www.reigisacelebration.tumblr.com), although I **will not** be posting it up in its entirety. It is my hope to be able to finish this multi-chaptered story into a fan novel and put it up for digital sale in the near future. This is why only the first three chapters will be published as a preview.
> 
> This sample will not contain any explicit materials, but the final product _will_ feature themes of violence and sex. The title of this fic is also subject to changes.
> 
> (My commissions are open! For more information, [please see here](http://algidwind.tumblr.com/commissions).)
> 
> Also on [Tumblr](http://algidwind.tumblr.com/post/125386790428/the-way-you-remember-me-chapter-1-reinagisa).

The crowds were thick in the marketplace, making it easy for Nagisa to slip between people and rummage through coin purses and bags at will. Everyone was so preoccupied with the vendors’ hawking or perusing different wares that they hardly noticed him. It helped that he was so short and small, and his hooded cloak hid him well too. Otherwise, his mop of yellow hair would have undoubtedly attracted an unnecessary amount of attention.

He was only halfway down the long street and but already managed to pilfer a good amount of money from several unsuspecting victims. It seemed that he would be able to dine lavishly tonight. He smiled to himself discreetly as he ducked around someone’s swinging elbow and pocketed another few coins.

Nagisa squeezed between two warriors who were bargaining with a storekeeper on the price of some weapons. The gold they were throwing around caught his attention, but a skilled thief like him wasn’t stupid enough to steal money in transaction, especially when the two warriors seemed so formidable. He shook his head and moved on.

In front of him was a tall mage with a wide-brimmed hat and a heavy-looking satchel slung across his shoulders and chest. Judging from the fine, if not slightly travel-worn, quality of his clothing, he must have been relatively rich. The flap of his bag was slightly open, and his back was turned to Nagisa. He was apparently deep in thought. Whatever spell book he was reading through must have been interesting, because the mage appeared to be completely absorbed in it.

Nagisa grinned internally and snuck up on the man, taking advantage of the slight disturbances and activity around them to conceal his presence. With light fingers, he searched through the contents of the bag, constantly aware of wandering eyes around him.

After a few moments of digging, he frowned.

He frowned in dissatisfaction when he realized he was rummaging through a pile of books. Originally, he thought that the bag was weighed down with money or precious loot, but the more he felt around, the more he realized he was just brushing up against thick pages and leather binding. But Nagisa didn’t give up, convinced that he had to have money in his bag _somewhere_.

Nagisa swallowed and buried his hand deeper into the bag. If he didn’t find anything within the next three seconds, he was going to make himself scarce. It was too risky to hang around any longer.

His expression lit up when his fingertips hit up against soft fabric wrapped around the promising hardness of gold and silver coins. With his breath suspended, he maneuvered the bag until it was free from the mage’s multiple tomes. Carefully, he retracted his arm and shoved the whole purse into his pocket in a hurry.

With giddy adrenaline coursing through his blood, Nagisa slipped away without a trace.

The purse he had just filched felt many times heavier than the other ones he had stolen. Even if it was filled only with bronze, he was sure there was quite a bit of money in there. At this rate, he might even be able to afford those exotic-looking berries that he had been eyeing for so long. “Strawberries,” they had been labeled at the fruit vendor’s stall. He didn’t know where they came from, but their vivid red and sickeningly cloying smell attracted him like the flies which flocked upon their delicate skins. His mouth watered just thinking about them.

He had to find out how much he had “earned” right away.

In a burst of impatience, Nagisa ran into a shaded alleyway and tucked himself far into the back recesses of it, where other people would hesitate to enter. He had no fear though. He knew the streets well, after all. Besides that, even if he wasn’t very strong at physical combat, he was fast. Anything or anyone he couldn’t fight, he could flee from.

After establishing the fact that he was alone, he dug out all the money and purses he had stolen and started going through them. Most of it was just silver and bronze, but there were a few gold coins here and there. Someone had even been carrying a crystal coin with them. He greedily tucked that into a secret pocket.

His last item was a large pouch with a silvery-gold drawstring from the mage he just stole from. The bag itself looked like it could fetch a hefty price, since its material and color were good. Nagisa touched the deep blue-purple velvet with his fingertips and felt the corners of his lips lifting in excitement. He seemed to have hit the jackpot with this one.

With bated breath, he dug into the soft mouth of the purse and opened it. His eyes glittered with the reflected light of silver and gold coins, and he almost squealed aloud in glee. In his mind, he could already see himself gorging on piles upon piles of those gorgeous berries from the fruit vendor. Nagisa swallowed and started to tip the bag over in order to count out how much money was in it.

“ _Binding Chains_!”

Suddenly, his arms slammed themselves against his body, and his legs came together so violently that his knees knocked against each other. All his movements were restricted, and his breath got squeezed out of him. He couldn’t even yell in surprise because everything transpired so quickly. Nagisa started struggling hard, but it was as if his limbs had been forcefully plastered together. In his panic, he threw off his hood and accidentally revealed his face and hair. His heart started beating like crazy, and his precious loot fell before his eyes in slow motion.

Just as it was about to hit the floor, the bag froze—and slowly started to drift upwards. Surprised, Nagisa stilled too. Before he could figure out what was going on, a tall stranger stopped before him. His eyes were automatically drawn up by their overwhelming stature. Silently, he swallowed as he found himself looking straight into the eyes of a very unamused looking mage. If he wasn’t mistaken, it was the same one he had pilfered from mere minutes ago.

The mage’s face was cast in shadow from the large hat he was wearing, and his icy glare was not at all lessened by the silver-rimmed glasses he was wearing. If anything, they seemed to amplify his hostility.

Without saying anything, the mage calmly retrieved his velvet coin purse from where it was levitating and tucked it back into his satchel.

“I’ll be taking this back, thank you very much,” the mage asked in a low, steady voice. He was about half a head taller than Nagisa but instead of turning his face down to speak with the blond, he haughtily peered at him with his head held high.

Nagisa should have been afraid or even indignant with his treatment, since he was still bound by invisible somethings and incapable of squirming his way out, but he was too stunned by the fact that he was even caught. It had been years since anyone was able to sneak up on him and catch him red-handed. He could have blamed it on his impatience and hastiness, but Nagisa should have sensed the mage walking down the alleyway at the very least. He opened and closed his mouth a few times uncomprehendingly at the taller man.

At his gaping, the mage sniffed disdainfully. “There’s no need for you to imitate a fish, Thief. I merely placed a locating charm on my coin purse in case I had the misfortune of encountering people like _you_ ,” he explained without being asked.

After hearing the mage’s words, Nagisa shook his head. “No, no, no, I’m not thinking about _that_! How long do you think I’ve been a thief for? Of course I’ve come across mages who used the same charm on their valuables! I was just wondering how you managed to sneak up on me,” he frowned.

The mage appeared a bit miffed at how casually Nagisa dismissed his explanation and insult, but there were really no merits in being a sensitive thief, and the blond had always been the type to shrug things off easily. He even lived by the motto of, “Don’t sweat the small stuff!”

“I merely utilized a stealth charm to follow you here,” the taller man said curtly, apparently still not done being offended by Nagisa’s casualness.

Nagisa whistled softly. “Wow. You must be a pretty high-leveled mage then! I can usually see through mid-level charms, but I didn’t notice you at all!”

The mage struggled and failed to stop himself from puffing his chest out proudly at the praise and pushed his glasses higher. “But of course. Unlike you, who have probably lived here for your entire life in this provincial town—”

“Shyrafell is the second-largest trading city next to the capital,” Nagisa interrupted nonchalantly without any regards to the mage’s feelings. He felt enormously amused when he saw the mage twist his face into a grimace and go on with his lofty speech as if nothing had happened.

“ _I_ have been training hard and traveling the lands for many years. Naturally, I am at a much higher rank than you.”

“Mmmyep!” Nagisa agreed immediately. “That’s cool.”

The mage’s mouth dropped open for a second, but he quickly recomposed himself and furrowed his brows together. His poor attempts to mock Nagisa were amusing the blond more than they angered him.

“Well then!” the mage said in an affronted voice. “Now that I have retrieved my coin purse, I no longer have any need to stay here.” He turned and started to walk away.

There was a short silence, and then Nagisa began struggling again. “Wait! Aren’t you going to release me?”

The taller man let out a short laugh and turned slightly so that Nagisa could only see part of his face. “Release you? Now why in the world would I want to do that? After all, you did just try to steal from me. You could yell for help, but then you’d risk the danger of having _your_ money stolen, hm? I don’t suppose you have a very high reputation around these parts.”

Nagisa shut his mouth and frowned again. He had underestimated how much of a sadist this mage was and was starting to regret not playing the fool for him earlier. After so many years of pickpocketing in the same city, Nagisa _had_ garnered quite a dark reputation among the locals, and he definitely had more than a few bounties on his head. Being caught in this situation was not in his best interests.

“B-But I really need to go pee right now!” he stammered, hoping that it would somehow get him out of his dilemma.

“Too bad,” the mage replied. “You’ll just have to hold it then.”

He closed his mouth in shock and wonder.

“The spell will wear off after a few hours,” the sadistic mage said casually, once again walking away. “Maybe you should use that time to reflect on your actions toward others and repent….”

Nagisa craned his neck to watch as the mage disappeared around the corner, effectively abandoning him. He had a feeling that even if he tried calling out again, the taller man wouldn’t even care.

After a few seconds, he tried wiggling his arms and legs, but it was to no avail. He couldn’t even move an inch. Nagisa knew no spells to break the one binding him, and his feet were floating just far enough from the ground to make it impossible for him to move. The only things he could be glad about were the fact that the mage had not taken the rest of his money, the alleyway he was strung up in was relatively unused, and he was floating in a large patch of shade. So long as he stayed quiet and was lucky, he might not be found by anyone else before the spell broke.

With a frown, he sighed and relaxed his body so he was just dangling there. There was nothing else he could do anyway.

After staring at the boring wall in front of him for a few minutes, his stomach growled.

He was lying when he said that he needed to go pee, but at this rate, Nagisa felt that he might just starve to death before he was released from his bindings. He tilted his face up to the sky and let out a despaired sob.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (My commissions are open! For more information, [please see here](http://algidwind.tumblr.com/commissions).)
> 
> Also on [Tumblr](http://algidwind.tumblr.com/post/125448768133/the-way-you-remember-me-chapter-2-reinagisa).

Nagisa readjusted the bag slung across his shoulder moodily and looked at the slip of parchment in his hand again. It was an official request sheet from the city’s guild he had picked up earlier that day. Despite mainly earning his “income” from pickpocketing, there were times that he took up more respectable jobs as well. Sometimes, it was to kill boredom, other times it was to stay under the radar whenever he got himself involved in something too sticky.

This time, however, it was simply because he wasn’t in the mood to try stealing again.

It had already been a few days since Nagisa’s run-in with the haughty mage in the alleyway, but he was still upset about the whole ordeal. The binding spell which had strung him up didn’t dissipate for several hours until it was almost sundown. Even if he had been joking about needing to use the bathroom at first, by the time the invisible binds finally released him, he really _did_ have to go.

Fortunately, no one had found him in such a predicament and he was alone when the spell wore off, so nobody was around to witness him falling ungracefully to the floor. He was neither physically nor mentally prepared to support his own weight again, so it had taken him a second to realize why everything was suddenly sideways and dusty and his entire body hurt.

After that, he had grumpily picked himself up and made his way back to his sleeping quarters: a small yet lively inn near the outskirts of the city which was known as an underground haven for “unsavory” types like him. Strangers and bandits who would have been otherwise unwelcome in any other part of town were accepted with a blind eye, so long as fares were paid and “professional” issues were left at the door.

Nagisa had been a patron of the inn for several years now and even had a modestly small room to himself. Compared to the other regular and irregular customers of the inn, he was less a scoundrel than a rascal, so he was well-tolerated by the staff.

But now wasn’t the time to be thinking fondly of his lumpy but acceptable bed waiting at him back at the inn. He had a job to do.

It was a simple one that he had completed several times in the past with ease. One of the local apothecaries had run out of a certain herb which was only active at night. It wasn’t difficult to harvest, but the forests around the city were dangerous, day or night. The woods were filled with beasts of all sizes and magical properties. It was just that nocturnal ones were even less friendly than the diurnal ones.

Nagisa wasn’t exactly strong in fighting terms, but he was clever. He knew how to read the forest and make sure that he wouldn’t run into any wild animals, and even if he did, he knew how to make a quick getaway. After all, Nagisa had never been a very confrontational person, at least not in a physical sense.

He glanced up at the full moon and tucked the request sheet into his shirt for safekeeping. Soon, he would be at one of the backdoor exits which led out of the city.

Even though he had legitimate paperwork that would grant him exit through the main gates, Nagisa still preferred not to get too involved with the guards. Aside from that, it was just faster to pay his way out than to go through the whole screening process at the official entryways.

He made his way faster to the high, outer walls which surrounded the city for protection.

A dark, hooded figure was leaning casually against the cold cement barrier as he approached. “Hey, Nagisa,” he drawled at him, though his name came out more like “N’geesa.”

The blond grunted his lackluster response. Almost nobody in town knew how to pronounce his name properly and always stressed the wrong syllable, but he had long since given up on correcting them. It was in his better interest to keep his name unknown anyway. “Hey, Sylan,” he replied curtly.

“Out for another of your wagon raids?” the slouching man asked.

“Official business, actually,” he said, and patted his breast pocket with a thin grin. He rummaged for a bronze coin for the guard. Sylan hummed noncommittally.

Nagisa tossed the coin at him and approached the wall. To anyone else, the section of wall the two were standing in front of would merely look old and overgrown with weeds. But for those who were in the know, there was a moderately-sized hole in one of the huge cinder blocks which allowed a grown man or two to squeeze in and out of freely—or as freely as the night-guard charged.

Sylan dug his gloved hands between the brambles and opened up a small area for the blond to crawl through. For Nagisa, who was compact and slim, it was easy to slip between the curling vines and wriggle into the tight space between the blocks. The guard mumbled a phrase of safe journey to him before letting down the curtain of leaves and roots back over the hole.

The thief briefly peeked out of the thick greenery to see if any patrols were nearby before he wrestled his way past them and tumbled out. A twig or two stuck on his cloak, and he picked them off easily. The night was quiet around him.

After letting out a quick sigh and readjusting his hood over his hair, Nagisa set off toward the forest for his herbs. The nearest cluster of the plants was near the center of the woods, about a twenty minute trek away.

Nagisa kept his ears open and eyes moving as he traversed the wild brushes. He carried no lantern because of the likelihood of being discovered and tracked down, both by both humans and animals. Unless it was a flaming torch, the predators of the forest would not be dissuaded from attacking, but carrying such an unwieldy light source would have been silly for such a simple task. That aside, he had good night-vision and the moon was bright anyway.

Once he reached a little deeper into the woods and the human-made paths started to fade and blur, Nagisa did a brief inventory of his concealed weapons. A line of throwing knives on one side of his cloak, poisoned; another line of daggers on the other, poisoned; and another handful of daggers on the back of his belt, unpoisoned. Everything was accounted for.

His billowing figure might have been intimidating enough to scare off the more skittish predators and definitely the wary herbivores, but ember wolves were indigenous to the area, and he was starting to enter their ever-shifting territory.

Nagisa started to scan the area for indications of recent animal activity, just in case.

Suddenly, he froze. A burnt leaf fluttered over to him and battered itself against his foot. He crouched down to pick it up and examine. From the way the edges of the leaf had melted and charred, there was no mistaking that ember wolf saliva had gotten on it.

He didn’t know how far the leaf had blown from, but Nagisa was already making his mind up to leave. Nothing good ever came out of interacting with ember wolves, especially alone. There was another patch of the herbs on the far west side of the forest anyway, so there was no reason for him to have to risk his life. It would just take him a little longer to get there.

The blond was just about to turn around when a sudden, unnaturally strong blast rippled through the air and sent a powerful gust of wind hurtling past him. Nagisa brought up his hands to block his eyes from the forest debris, and the loud flapping and squawking of startled birds added to the deafening noise as they took flight around him.

By the time he lowered his arms, there was a thin column of smoke rising from between the trees. He squinted at the smoke, trying to judge how far it was. He estimated it at about five minutes away from him. There was nothing in the forest which could cause explosions, and the abnormal, purplish shade of the smoke made it clear that it was the work of a magician. The size of the fading smoke didn’t seem like the work of a combined attack from multiple spell casters, but it was still an impressive bloom for a single mage.

Morbid curiosity mixed with his hidden sense of magnanimity. Maybe it was a traveling party with only one mage and they could handle a small pack of ember wolves. But it could also be just a single mage battling it out with the wolves, which would not lead to a happy conclusion.

Nagisa gnawed on his lower lip for a second and then unhooked a knife from his belt. It wouldn’t hurt to check out the situation. If the people were fine, then he could just slip away unnoticed. If they were in trouble, he could afford to help a little. It would take the city guards at least another half an hour to collect their ranks and arrive, and he was much closer anyway.

Stealth was not high on his list of concerns as he ran toward the direction of the explosion. Within seconds, he was able to hear the loud snapping of trodden branches and the thin, deep snarls of angry ember wolves. It wasn’t until a while later until he actually saw any of them though. He hid behind a tree to observe the situation.

There was an open area of burnt ground, littered with smoking patches of dirt and newly scarred trees. Bright light flashed and faded in quick succession, blinding him and ruining his night vision. Nagisa was annoyed, but he recognized the light as an attempt to ward off the wolves. Unfortunately, the flashy show wasn’t enough, and the wolves only backed away for a short while before crowding forward again.

A single figure stood in the middle of the circling pack of about seven or eight wolves, obviously outnumbered. A few lumps of unmoving fur indicated that the person had already gotten rid of part of the group. The way the stranger was carrying themselves indicated some sort of shoulder injury. They mumbled under their breath and then flung their right arm out in a wide sweep. Their voice rose, and a volley of condensed light flew from their hand.

In that brief moment, the figure’s face was illuminated harshly, and their features became clear to Nagisa. He recognized the other person immediately.

It was the mage he tried pickpocketing before. His expression was harshly twisted in a grimace of pain and concentration, so unlike the way he had appeared to Nagisa before. A small part of him darkly cheered at the fact that the man was getting retribution for messing with Nagisa the other day, but his internal celebration only lasted for a split second because he was able to see what the other man didn’t.

One of the ember wolves standing directly behind him had leapt into the air to attack.

Adrenaline rushed through him. Instinctively, he readjusted his grip on his dagger, drew his arm back, and threw. A sharp yelp scored through the air as the blade buried itself into the dark grey pelt of the wolf, and it fell to the ground. His attack prevented the immediate death of the spell-caster, but it caused the rest of the pack to become even more agitated.

The mage appeared surprised by the body which collapsed behind him, but he hardly had the time to search for his savior before another wolf approached him. He focused his energy on chanting another spell which brought spikes of brittle ice from the ground and stabbed at the wolves’ feet.

There was no point in trying to hide anymore, so Nagisa ran out into the area with his knives in his hands. Using his quick speed, he was able to swipe at another of the beasts and draw blood from it. He quickly swept his cape out at it to prevent its saliva from landing on him. The quick movement startled the attacker into backing off.

Ember wolves weren’t named so because they could spit fire but because their saliva contained a toxin which melted and burned organic material. The blister and boils left behind from direct contact with the saliva highly resembled fire-inflicted wounds, though their treatment methods were dissimilar.

Once he had secured a wider berth around them, he retreated to stand back-to-back with the mage.

“You!” the other man exclaimed in startled recognition. A shot of weak lightning crackled from his palm and danced at the feet of the bristling wolves, effectively keeping them away.

In any other situation, Nagisa would have said something cheeky in response and made fun of the mage, but they were already severely outnumbered and he wanted to get out of the forest alive.

“Fire!” he yelled as he swept his arm out in a wide arc to keep the wolves away.

“What?” the magician froze and stared at him in confusion.

“You have to fight fire with fire when it comes to these wolves!”

“And burn down the entire forest? The trees here grow too thickly together, and the underbrush is dry enough to catch flame immediately!” With a grunt, the spell-caster held his palm out directly before him as a large wolf charged toward him. The beast was nearly upon him when it suddenly rammed into an invisible barrier and fell dazedly to the ground. “If I was able to use fire magic in this environment, I wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place!”

“Then make an illusion!”

“What?”

“Make a bunch of fake flames and scare them away!” Nagisa grunted as he swiped at another wolf that got too close for his comfort. “Surely, a mage of your caliber can cast a simple illusionary spell?”

The taller man huffed indignantly and started chanting quietly without responding to the jab. Nagisa focused on keeping the both of them safe from attacks. If they stayed still for too long, the pack would start mobbing them again. The flashes of their yellowed teeth and slick gums made Nagisa very uneasy.

“Any time now,” the blond muttered under his breath as he watched the wolves appraise them, orange and gold specks glittering in their eyes hungrily.

“Illusionary spells take time, and the lighting conditions aren’t exactly ideal at this moment, so if you will just be quiet for a moment and let me finish this,” he gritted out in a strained voice.

Nagisa didn’t have any time to respond, because in the next second, a huge circle of blue-white flames exploded outward with the two of them in the center. Because of the lack of a warning, the blond let out a startled yell and tried to back away from the all-encompassing “flames.” He merely ended up bumping into the taller man’s back.

The entire area lit up angrily, burning red-blue afterimages into Nagisa’s eyes. Every time he blinked, spots and lingering lines dragged over his vision. The flames were incredibly realistic, fading red and orange after they had whirled out and clung stickily onto the leaves of nearby trees. The forest floor was set ablaze with the illusionary fire which licked at everything in its vicinity.

They were so visually convincing that, even when Nagisa realized there was no heat behind them, he couldn’t help but flinch away from any flames that got too close.

The wolves yelped and scattered immediately, frightened by the sudden inferno and the fear of blistering heat. Their large paws kicked up leaves and dirt as they fled hurriedly. The last Nagisa heard of them were the lingering whispers of low growls and sharp yips.

“Just an illusion, Thief,” a thin, fluttery voice said behind him, and the flames vanished without a trace.

Nagisa blinked at the suddenness of the fire’s disappearance. Despite being consciously aware that it was just a trick of light and magic, the fact that it literally faded away without a sliver of smoke made him feel unnerved.

With the wolf pack gone, the former battleground was silent except for the lush rustle of leaves, since the other inhabitants of the woods had been silenced by their skirmish. It was as if the forest was holding its breath.

The weight that was pressing against his back abruptly started to slide down to the floor, and Nagisa turned around quickly to catch the mage. He was much heavier than he anticipated, but dead weight was never an easy burden to carry. The two of them sank down to the floor slowly.

The wolf he had killed earlier was still lying on the ground next to them, its eyes dull and mouth open in a half snarl. The dirt near its mouth had charred black because of the frothy saliva that had gotten on it. He reached over to its body, yanked out his dagger from where it had been embedded, and wiped the bloodied blade on the wolf’s fur. Nagisa put the dirty knife away and turned from the corpse, focusing on supporting the other man instead.

Nagisa cradled the mage’s head and tried to make him at least semi-comfortable.

“Hey! You okay?” The taller man had been holding on so steadily that Nagisa hadn’t expected him to collapse all of a sudden. Now that he had a closer look, it became clear exactly how badly off the mage was. His face was pale and clammy with sweat, his breath short and irregular, and his eyes were starting to glaze over intermittently.

“My left shoulder suffered a relatively deep cut early on in the battle, and I’ve been bleeding since, so it’s just a bit of blood loss,” he said, somehow still maintaining his long-windedness despite the fact that he was very literally bleeding to death.

Immediately, Nagisa pulled back the mage’s cloak to examine the cut. He grimaced at the amount of congealed and fresh blood surrounding the gash. His sleeve was soaked through with the sticky liquid as well. Nagisa could only hope that it looked worse than it actually was. “You didn’t get bitten, did you?” he asked while trying to check for burn marks.

The mage shook his head. “No, one of the beasts caught me off guard and clawed at me.”

“Good,” he replied, taking up the hem of his robe and getting ready to tear it into a strip. “Don’t have to worry about the venom then….”

“Wait!” The spell-caster’s eyes suddenly became clear, and he harshly stopped Nagisa from ripping his cloak. “Don’t use that,” he admonished. “There are some clean cloth strips in my bag that I’ve prepared for emergencies such as this. Use them to wrap around my wound instead.”

Nagisa was stunned into momentary wordlessness. “Wow,” he said simply. “You really are something else.”

Regardless of how ridiculous the situation seemed, he still listened to the mage. The bag was slung around the other man’s good shoulder, and the flap was thrown open. Quickly, Nagisa reached in and started rummaging around for the cloth.

“They’re in the side pockets,” the taller man instructed while staring blearily at the sky above.

It took him a handful of seconds before successfully finding it. Once he did, Nagisa got ready to wrap up the wound. The man’s outer cloak was pulled off, and the blond used one of his poisonless daggers to cut off the torn sleeve which stuck wetly to the magician’s skin.

The rough dressing of the wound was done swiftly since Nagisa knew they didn’t have a lot of time to spare, but it was a clean job. Nagisa has gotten hurt far too many times to not know how to properly treat injuries.

“Can you stand?” he asked, already pushing the taller man into a sitting position.

“I can—try.”

The mage started to shift around, and Nagisa swiftly made his way over to his right side where he ducked down and slung the taller man’s arm around his neck and shoulder. They struggled together for a good half a minute before they were able to get the spell-caster on his feet. He seemed ready to collapse again at any second, but Nagisa did his best to bolster him up.

“I’m going to get you to a healer now, but we have to make it back to the city first,” he said. “You’re going to have to stay awake for the entire time, or else I’m dumping you on the ground and leaving you to fend for yourself.”

The mage laughed deliriously. “This is certainly an interesting tactic on keeping a patient awake, but very well. I will do my best.”

“Alright, let’s go then,” Nagisa said. He glanced behind them hastily, where the bodies of several wolves lay. Nagisa’s heart ached at the amount of wasted money he could have collected from their precious pelts, venom, and claws, but now wasn’t the time to be ruing over lost profits. He readjusted the mage’s arm on him and started moving.

It was difficult to walk with more than half of the magician’s weight on him, but they somehow managed to create a half-decent pace together.

In his head, Nagisa was already calculating how much time it would take for them to leave the forest and return to the city. At the moment, they were about fifteen minutes into the woods, so it would most likely take them another half hour before they breached the forest’s perimeter. Then, it would be another ten minutes from the backdoor entrance to the healer’s. Nagisa just hoped that the mage would be able to survive the next forty minutes of jostling and bleeding.

“Hey, so, before you pass out and die or something, you’d better commit your savior’s name into your memory,” he said with a light-hearted tone. “I’m Nagisa. What about you?”

“Nagisa…” the mage repeated, and he was actually able to pronounce it properly. “That’s a nice name,” he appraised, and the blond was completely convinced that the taller man would never say such a thing about him if he was in a better state of mind. His voice was close to his ear, and Nagisa could hear every word he said distinctly. His accent was foreign, but that was no surprise, since Shyrafell received so many travelers within its walls.

The man’s accent was strange and lilting, and his enunciation precise and clear-cut. It was so different from the hastiness of the city’s accent. Everyone tended to slur and abbreviate their words, as if spending more than half a second on a word would be a waste of time. But the mage’s speech was different.

Even though Nagisa had never learned to speak in a formal, educational setting, he was sure that the mage’s manner of talking was probably the most proper and standard style. Every syllable that came out of his mouth was said as if it was read right out of a grammar book, but he managed not to sound stilted. On the contrary, his words flowed and swelled naturally.

They were also thin and wheezy at the moment, which really wasn’t a good sign, but there was nothing Nagisa could do about it.

“I’m Ryuugazaki—No, in this country, it goes the other way around, doesn’t it?” he muttered. “Rei Ryuugazaki. I’m Rei Ryuugazaki.”

“Okay, Rei,” he said, “would you care to tell me why you were doing around the forest at night and stirring up trouble?”

“I was not ‘stirring up trouble,’” Rei rebutted petulantly. He shook his head and inadvertently tickled the side of Nagisa’s face with his hair. “I was merely trying to find a very specific species of herb that is indigenous to this forest. It’s a very peculiar plant that I’ve only gotten to see in my textbooks and, once, I was lucky enough to examine a dried specimen. Unfortunately, its most special characteristics can only be observed on a living plant at night.”

Nagisa wasn’t sure if the mage was rambling out of delirium or just talking normally, but he was thankful that Rei was still managing to stay awake.

“The books mention that it is very effective at soothing rashes and hives when its flowers are crushed and used as a salve. It is also an excellent neutralizer to a type of venom which can be found in a species of wolf which also resides in this forest.” Rei paused for a second and thought hard. “I reckon the wolves we just defeated were those very same fiends!”

“Yeah,” the blond responded, barely paying attention to what he was talking about since he was so focused on making sure they didn’t trip over protruding roots and rocks. “We call ‘em ‘ember wolves.’”

“ _Fascinating_ ,” the mage replied under his breath. “It’s a shame I wasn’t able to collect samples of their infamous saliva for study!”

“Next time you run into them, I’ll just feed you to them then,” Nagisa muttered.

“I beg your pardon, I didn’t hear what you said.”

“It’s nothing.” He grunted and shifted Rei’s arm around him for a better grip. “Anyway, the plant you were looking for—was it firefly weed?”

Rei let out a contemplative hum. “Is that what it’s called here? I suppose such a name would befit it. I have read that it emits a most beautiful glow from its flowers that flickers whenever the bloom is about to close.”

“I don’t know about ‘beautiful,’ but I guess it’s kind of like this… yellow-green?”

“That sounds significantly less exciting than what the books described it as,” he said, sounding vaguely disappointed.

Over the course of Rei’s overly descriptive lessons about the local flora and fauna, the two of them had made their way about two-thirds of their way out of the forest.

“We’re almost there, Rei. Do you think you can do it?”

The mage didn’t respond.

Worriedly, Nagisa shook him. “Rei?”

With a jolt, the taller man snapped out of his reverie. “Yes—I apologize. I must have… slipped away for a moment there. I’m fine! Just fine…. Only a bit sleepy.”

“Almost there,” the blond repeated, not feeling too good about the fact that the mage was starting to slur his words and drift in and out of consciousness. His feet were still sluggishly moving over the forest floor, but he was also getting heavier and heavier on Nagisa’s back.

“So you like studying plants and animals and stuff?” he asked, trying to keep the other man awake for as long as possible.

Rei continued talking, but his sentences made less and less sense as he went on, and he kept repeating things as well. Still, as long as he was still conscious and responding, Nagisa was glad. He was strong, but not strong enough to drag the taller man all the way to the city by himself.

When the trees started thinning out and they were nearing the edge of the forest, Nagisa hushed the wounded man. His bright eyes flickered back and forth along the dark expanse of night to check for any guards patrolling the area, and it was only once he was positive no one was around that they hobbled their way to where the illegal entrance was located.

He left Rei to lean heavily against the grey bricks while he picked up a sturdy stone from the floor and tapped on the worn inside of the secret crawlspace four times—three quick bursts, a pause, then the last one—in order to indicate that he was waiting outside. He waited for a response and got one right away. A long, gritty scratch and a single tap echoed back to him. The coast was clear.

With another wary glance around them, Nagisa pulled the thick vines away from the entrance and called out to Rei.

“Crawl through here. There’ll be someone on the other side to help you out.”

The mage stumbled blindly toward him and crouched down. “This really isn’t safe for the city,” he mused dazedly at the sight of the hidden entryway. “I should report this to the guards so that they can properly seal it up and look for other such entrances….”

Nagisa rolled his eyes and just waited for Rei to slowly make his way to the other side. Once Rei was done, he wiggled into the gap and scurried back into the city as well.

When he made it out, Sylan was staring at him with a suspicious look on his face and supporting a now fully unconscious Rei.

The man was about to say something to him, but Nagisa cut him off. “No time for questions now, Sylan. I need your help carrying him to Viridielle’s,” he huffed.

“But there’d be no one guarding here and—”

Nagisa interrupted him again. “I know Lyria is standing around the corner over there, keeping secondary watch. Call her over to cover your shift for half an hour, and I’ll give you both a three bronze coins to make up for it.”

Sylan still didn’t seem convinced, but Nagisa was really in no mood to keep standing around. He didn’t just drag a man from the forest for half an hour only to have him die on the periphery of the city’s gates. “Five bronze coins to you both, then.”

The guard paused, jerked his chin in the direction of the corner Nagisa indicated earlier, and pulled Rei more firmly across his shoulders. “Let’s go.”

The blond sighed in relief and followed.

 

* * *

 

With Sylan doing the heavy lifting, the three of them were able to arrive at the healer’s home very quickly. Nagisa ran ahead to knock on the door and alert the healer of their presence. A light was lit moments after his semi-frantic knocking, and the door opened to reveal a ruffled-looking woman with a candle.

Her dark hair was pinned up messily, and her eyes looked tired. “Nagisa?” she asked, frowning at him. “What scrapes have you gotten on yourself this time?”

“Not me, Viridielle,” he said. “This man got himself involved with a pack of ember wolves.” He nodded toward where Sylan and Rei were, and her eyes followed his line of sight. “It’s just his shoulder, but he’s been bleeding for the past hour or so.”

She clicked her tongue and opened her door a little wider. “Have him put on the bed inside, and I’ll take a look.”

Nagisa trotted back to Sylan and helped him take Rei into the house. The healer was no longer in the room, but Nagisa could hear her talking in another part of her home, probably rousing her assistant, Ket, from sleep. Together, they removed Rei’s cloak and laid him carefully on the bed. The mage groaned softly in a feverish dream.

The blond hastily reached into his pouch and fished out ten bronze coins. “Five for you and five for Lyria, okay?” he said with a stern look while handing the money over.

Sylan pocketed all of it and gave him a grin. “Have a bit more faith in me, Nagisa.”

He waved him off and didn’t bother watching the guard leave.

Rei’s breathing was thin, and his face shone with sweat in the flickering candlelight. The bandage he had wrapped around the mage’s shoulder was wet with red, though Nagisa was relieved to see that it wasn’t soaked through. At least the bleeding had slowed somewhat.

He couldn’t help but hover around the mage while waiting for Viridielle to return.

Soon, she came back out looking much more awake. A boy about five or six years younger than Nagisa followed her out with a tray of medical supplies. His sandy-colored hair was sticking out on one side, but his eyes were alert and bright. Silently, he nodded at the blond.

The healer moved around the room to light more candles while her assistant placed the metal tray down and prepared them for her. He ran back into the other room and came back with a basin of warm water. Ket removed the silver frames from Rei’s face and set them down on the preparatory table as well.

“You dressed this?” Viridielle asked as she untied the cloth from Rei’s shoulder. She glanced at him quickly and caught his confirmatory nod. “Always as good with your bandaging as ever, I see.”

With a pair of sharp shears, she cut away more of Rei’s shirt. She clicked her tongue again once the wound was revealed. She held out her hand to Ket, who promptly gave her a damped cloth. Gingerly, she wiped off as much blood from around the injury as possible. “This isn’t a very clean cut, but it’s not terribly deep, at least. No venom in it either, which is good.”

Nagisa could only watch and try to keep out of the way as the two of them worked.

In no time, they were able to clean the wound and get ready to heal it.

“Nagisa!” she called out to him, beckoning him to stand on the other side of the bed. “We’re going to close his wound, but he might wake up in the middle of it, so I need you to hold him down if that happens.”

He swallowed and looked at the sickly face of the man lying on the bed. He nodded nervously. “Okay.”

She turned her attention back to her assistant. “We’re going to knit the tissues back together before healing over the skin, alright?” Viridielle asked Ket as she rubbed her palms together. The young boy nodded and got into position with his palms hovering over Rei’s wound.

Viridielle and Ket began to murmur under their breaths words that Nagisa couldn’t understand even if he could hear them. His eyes went to the open wound on Rei’s shoulder, and he watched with disgusted fascination as the sinews of flesh threaded back together and smoothed out from their torn cuts.

Rei’s eyes fluttered opened halfway through the spell and gasped. He was only staring at the ceiling in white shock, but his right hand started to reach for his healing wound.

“Nagisa!” Viridielle’s sharp voice cut through her flowing spell-casting, and the blond immediately moved to hold Rei down.

At the pressure upon him, the mage’s sharp eyes snapped and drilled hauntingly into his. They were a brilliant purple, Nagisa realized for the first time, as he was immobilized by the alarmingly clear gaze on him. A chill went through him at the intensity of the glare. Rei’s focus only lasted for half a second before it turned into confusion and discomfort.

“Thief! They will have your head for this—for treating me like this—” he muttered incomprehensibly, and then he shuddered back into a troubled sleep.

In another few minutes, Viridielle and Ket were done, and the skin on Rei’s shoulder was smooth again. An irritated-looking pink scar was all that remained of it, but it was infinitely better than the jagged gash it was before.

“It’s done,” the woman said, taking her hands away. “We’ve healed the most severe damage, but despite how it looks now, he’ll still have to stay here for at least a week to let his muscles recover on their own.”

“And the blood loss?”

“Was not as bad as you thought,” she replied. “He’ll be weak for a few days, but I’ll give him some supplements to help push his recovery along. Ket, could you fetch the sleeping draught for me from the cabinet?”

As the younger boy ran off, Viridielle turned to Nagisa.

“Do you have any wounds to be treated?”

He blinked at her and patted his body down absentmindedly. “No, I think I’m fine. Anything I got is probably just a scratch or something.”

“Well, in that case, just apply this ointment on them to prevent infection.” She handed him a small vial of greasy salve.

“Thanks, Viridielle. About payment—”

“We can discuss that tomorrow, when the patient wakes up. As for you, you should stay here so he doesn’t wake up with no point of reference as to why he’s here. It’s too late for you to return to The Oasis anyway,” she said, referring to the inn he stayed at.

Nagisa smiled wryly as he watched her clean up her metal tools. She knew the streets were his playground, and that there was no way he’d be in danger of anything in them with the night on his side. He gripped the vial a little tighter and nodded with a smile. “Okay.”

“If you don’t mind, you can sleep on the cot over there. I’ll get you a blanket for the night.”

Ket came out with a stoppered jar and a small, shallow dish.

“Thank you,” she said. Carefully, she poured some of the clear, bright green sleeping draught into the plate and brought it up to Rei’s parted lips. She tilted it and slipped the liquid into his throat until the plate was empty.

Rei was sallow and frail on the bed, and the pale green staining his lips only made him look worse.

Nagisa sat tiredly on the cot Viridielle had motioned to him earlier and sighed. Hopefully, the mage would look better by the time he woke up tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (My commissions are open! For more information, [please see here](http://algidwind.tumblr.com/commissions).)
> 
> Also on [Tumblr](http://algidwind.tumblr.com/post/125449608433/the-way-you-remember-me-chapter-3-reinagisa).

He wasn’t the first one up the next day. Nagisa drifted into wakefulness to the soft sounds of quiet shuffling in the room, and he sat up immediately. The blond found himself staring owlishly at a startled Viridielle, who had just entered the main room of the house to check up on Rei.

Judging from the quality of the light coming in from the curtained windows, it was probably shortly after sunrise.

“G… Good morning,” he said somewhat abashedly. He didn’t mean to scare her, but he had long since gotten used to waking up immediately at any sign of movement, in case it was an intruder.

“Good morning,” she replied, relaxing a little and smiling. “You’re also as jumpy as ever.”

Sleepily, he rubbed his eyes and yawned. “Can’t help it. Not with my line of work.” Absently, he ran his fingers through his hair, which he knew was a mess.

“That’s why I keep telling you that you should start working for me instead, Nagisa. It’s a more stable job, and you don’t have to sneak around corners all the time,” the healer said mildly as she began wiping Rei’s forehead with a damp cloth. She held his wrist and measured his pulse silently.

He looked down and to the side, quiet for a second. Then, he hopped up and strode next to Rei’s bed. “I’ll think about it,” he said cheerily, but both of them knew he wouldn’t. “How is he?”

“There’s no fever,” she replied, “which means that the wound didn’t get infected. Still a little bit clammy, but that’s to be expected from that much blood loss. He’ll be better once he wakes up and eats something though.”

“Oh,” he said shortly. “That’s good.”

“So,” she said with a gentle smile as she wiped her hands clean on another white cloth from her pocket. “Who is he? Your new lover?”

Nagisa wrinkled his nose and waved his hand. “Lord, no. I just found him in the middle of the forest last night while I was trying to look for firefly weed and saved him from trying to fend off an entire pack of ember wolves by himself.”

“I figured he wasn’t from around here,” Viridielle said. Both of them knew no one from the city in the right mind would try to fight against ember wolves alone.

“Not with his accent, no,” he agreed with her. “But then again, how many of us actually are?”

She laughed lightly and shook her head. “You can go wash up in the back if you want. Ket should be awake already, so don’t worry about him.”

“Thanks.” He took one last look at Rei and made his way to the back room. Along the way, he passed by Ket’s sleeping quarters, a small corner which was separated by white cloths draped from the ceiling. The young boy was buttoning up his shirt as Nagisa passed by, and he nodded silently to him.

The two of them were not very familiar with each other, but they were on good terms. Ever since Ket started working for Viridielle three or four years ago, he had often been in charge of cleaning Nagisa’s more serious scrapes and cuts. Despite being young, Ket was very adept at his job, something Nagisa admired greatly about him.

“Good morning,” he said to the younger boy. “Thanks for helping out last night.”

Ket shook his head. His pale eyes darted out toward the front of the house. “Your friend?” he asked softly.

Nagisa smiled awkwardly. “Uh…. Something like that.” Even he wasn’t really sure what to call Rei, since he had technically tried to rob him a few days earlier and then decided to save him from imminent death just the night before. “We’re more like acquaintances for now though.”

The younger boy nodded, apparently not needing more explanation than that. He went back to buttoning his shirt, and Nagisa went on his way.

He found a basin of cold water and splashed his face with it. The chill shocked him as he scrubbed the grime off his face from the night before, and it woke him up considerably. Nagisa used some of the water to try and tame his hair as well. He wiped the water off hastily with his sleeve and went back inside.

Ket was gone from his quarters, and he could hear faint conversation happening in the main room.

“… you can move your left hand for me?”

When he got out there, Viridielle and Ket were standing around Rei’s bed. The mage seemed to be awake and disorientated. Rei was slowly flexing his left hand for the healer to check as she watched. Nagisa quietly made his way into the room and listened.

“Does anything feel different to you?”

“No,” Rei responded. “I’m just a bit sore, and the wound stings and itches.”

Gently, the healer smiled. “That’s normal. Ket and I were able to close it up to the best of our ability last night, but most of the work will still be up to you. We’d like you to stay here for at least a week to monitor your status, but—”

Nagisa finally reached Rei’s line of sight, and the mage stared at him with a look of deep thought. His glasses were back on again, so Nagisa knew Rei wasn’t squinting at him out of blindness.

With his eyebrows furrowed, he said, “You’re… Nagisa?”

The blond grinned. “Hey! You remembered my name. I thought you would’ve forgotten all about it by now.”

Rei shook his head. “No. I wouldn’t forget my benefactor’s name. Despite the fact that you also tried to steal from me not a week ago,” he said testily.

He laughed. “I hoped that you might’ve forgotten that too.”

The mage was clearly not amused by his jesting, but his expression relaxed somewhat. “However, I cannot ignore the fact that you saved me, so…. Thank you.”

Nagisa laughed softly and grinned at him.

 

* * *

 

“So what do you do for a living anyway?” Nagisa asked easily as he pared an apple and put a piece into his mouth.

Rei watched him with a slight frown and shook his head. He was propped up against the wall with some pillows, and his arm was in a cloth sling. The taller man had been moved into the side room of the makeshift clinic for more privacy. He had also been changed out of his tattered and blood-stained outfit into looser garments that had been provided by Viridielle. Since he was no longer wearing his severe, dark clothes, he looked like any normal person, though his sharp features still gave him a very austere and almost noble look.

Rei had been recovering well, and there had been no complications. It only took him a day or two to gain his color back, and Viridielle had already begun helping him do stretches and maintain his flexibility.

She had explained to him that it would take at least another month before everything was fully healed, but once he did, he should regain most of his mobility in his arm again. Rei didn’t seem too bothered by that, since, as he explained, mages didn’t really need much flexibility in the first place.

He pushed up his glasses at Nagisa’s question. “I don’t have any obligation to answer that question.”

“Yesh, you do,” Nagisa said around a mouthful of the crisp fruit. He finished chewing it and swallowed. “Since I saved your life and all.”

“I’ll be forever indebted to you because of that, won’t I?” the mage asked.

The blond smiled at him. “Yep! Glad to know that you learn fast!”

Rei sighed in defeat. “I must have told you this at least a half dozen times before, but I’m merely a scholar traveling the lands and conducting research on different flora and fauna!”

“That’s _boring_ ,” Nagisa said bluntly and bit into another slice of apple. “Most people who come by this city have interesting stories, but yours is just boring! Who even cares about the plants and animals around here anyway?”

The mage looked at him in offense. “Well, I’m sorry that I’m not as exciting as you hoped me to be! I cannot help my circumstances!”

Nagisa shrugged. “I just thought your tale would be more compelling or something, since you were so high and mighty with me the other day in the back alley. What was it that you said? That because you’ve traveled the lands, you’re _so_ much better than me?”

Rei flushed but couldn’t refute his words.

“In any case,” he said indignantly, “isn’t the caretaker of a patient supposed to peel and give fruits to the _patient_ and not themselves?”

To spite him, the blond popped another wedge of apple into his mouth.

“I’m your savior, not your mother,” he said while chewing. “Besides—”

Whatever Nagisa was going to say next was cut off from a series of light taps on the room window. The blond turned around and saw a small pigeon sitting on the sill.

“Ah, that’s for me,” Rei said casually.

“A messenger bird?” he asked as he put his paring knife and apple down. The pigeon patiently waited for him to open the window. Once he did, it flew straight to Rei and landed on the edge of the bed quietly.

Gently, Rei scratched the pigeon’s head and undid the string which held the cloth roll on its leg closed. A small piece of parchment tumbled from it, and he picked it up. Nagisa returned to his chair by the bed and watched the bird curiously.

“Could you perhaps feed him a small bit of your apple?” Rei asked him while he unfurled his message.

“Oh. Sure,” the shorter man replied and quickly cut off a tiny piece of the fruit. He held it out to the bird on his palm and smiled widely when it pecked at it. It didn’t take long before the apple sliver was gone.

Nagisa went back to watching Rei as he read. The frown on the mage’s face had grown considerably deep, as well as the furrow between his brows. He appeared to be very bothered.

“What’s the matter?” he asked the mage.

“It’s from my friend,” he replied and reached for his bag on the table with one arm. He took out a small vial of black ink, a slip of parchment, and a carefully wrapped quill from the satchel. Rei prepared the materials to write a response. “He just told me some troubling news. I’m needed in Faravynn.”

“Faravynn?” the shorter man repeated, “You mean the country that’s northeast from here?”

Rei looked at him in surprise and paused from his message. “You know where it is?”

A tinge of annoyance flared in Nagisa’s chest. “I may be a thief, but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid, Rei.”

The taller man had the decency to look sorry. “My apologies—I didn’t mean….”

Nagisa waved him off. “It’s fine. What are you needed there for?”

Rei’s expression closed off when he asked. He appeared to struggle with his thoughts before he evasively answered, “Just some business. I’ll have to depart as soon as I am adequately healed up.” He continued writing, his letters sharp and precise, just like he spoke.

Something deep and impulsive surged from within Nagisa’s chest when he heard those words. “Take me,” he said abruptly, leaning forward.

Rei’s quill hesitated over his parchment, and he frowned. “Excuse me?”

“Take me to Faravynn. And wherever you’ll be going to next. Let me go with you.”

“What?” The mage dried off his quill tip with an ink-covered cloth after he was done and recapped his ink pot.

Nagisa gripped onto the fabric of his pants and looked seriously at him. “I want to leave this place.”

The mage laughed at him dismissively. “Do you even have any business outside of Shyrafell?” An amused smile was on his lips as Rei rolled up his message and prepared to tie it onto the carrier pigeon’s leg.

“No, but I want to see the places beyond this city. I have always wanted to leave, but I knew I could never make it out by myself—not with the beasts and dangers beyond this wall and its forest. And a thief is not exactly the first person a wandering party would want to recruit with them, so please—” he frowned and said imploringly, “let me go with you.”

Rei’s hands stopped momentarily. He looked at Nagisa appraisingly through his silver rims. “And if I say no?”

The blond sat back in his chair and crossed his arms and legs. “You still owe me your life.”

With an exasperated sigh, Rei shook his head and returned his attention to the waiting pigeon in his hands. Nagisa hadn’t noticed until now, but beneath its neck feathers was a small, leather band. A tiny, violet gem was attached to it, but when Rei rubbed his thumb over it and muttered something under his breath, it became green.

“May you have a safe journey to the recipient of this message,” he whispered to the pigeon and released it.

Immediately, the bird took flight and left through the same window it came from, which Nagisa had forgotten to close. When it was gone, the shorter man looked back at Rei.

“You’re absolutely not changing your mind about wanting to leave Shyrafell, are you?” he asked with a critical gaze.

Nagisa shook his head.

Rei pushed up his glasses and crossed his arms as well, his expression becoming stern. “Give me one good reason why I should even consider taking you with me.”

“Viridielle said that it’ll take you at least a month to fully recover. You’d be at a disadvantage at battles during that time period should you be attacked, and I’d be able to help you fend enemies off. Besides, having one of your arms weakened will pose as a great inconvenience to you even with simple tasks,” Nagisa said levelly.

The taller man opened his mouth to rebut him, but Nagisa beat him to speaking first. “And if you’re still paranoid about me being a thief, remember that I could have easily stolen everything from you and left you a corpse on the forest floor days ago.”

Both of them stared at each other challengingly, neither backing down from their stubborn positions.

“I travel quickly and without many stops,” Rei said.

“Perfect. I’m always on my feet and moving around as well,” the blond countered.

“You’ll be responsible for obtaining your own food, water, and money, as I will not be providing you with any form of income.”

“Sounds exactly like what I’ve have to do for my entire life.”

“If you become involved in unsavory business, I will not become involved for your sake.”

“Fine by me.”

“I will not tolerate whining or complaining.”

“Can’t promise you everything here, but I’ll keep it to a minimum,” Nagisa said with a grin and wink.

A tense silence followed their quick back-and-forth conversation. Rei frowned intensely and Nagisa maintained a tight smile on his face.

Finally, after a long minute, Rei sighed and uncrossed his arms. “We’ll be leaving the city in a week. I expect you to have settled all your business here by then. We’ll be departing as soon as the city gates open in the morning. If you’re late, don’t expect me to wait for you.”

Unbridled energy burst from Nagisa as he leapt up and let out a loud whoop. “Yes! This is the best!” he yelled, dancing in place. “Thank you so much, Rei! You won’t regret agreeing to this, I promise!”

From the next room over, Ket silently appeared by the doorframe and pressed his index finger to his lips.

Nagisa smiled widely at him and apologized. In a much lower tone, he leaned over Rei’s bed and said again, “You really won’t regret this, Rei.” He held his right hand out to the mage.

Rei stared at his outstretched hand for a second and sniffed. “We’ll see about that, Nagisa.” He grasped the blond’s hand and shook it firmly.

 

* * *

**To be continued.**

* * *

 

After forming a begrudging partnership and agreement to travel together, Rei and Nagisa head northeast to visit the country of Faravynn, where Rei’s friend reportedly waits. The mage’s business is unclear and unexplained, but Nagisa doesn’t care so long as he can leave the city he has called “home” only out of necessity.

As their journey continues, the two of them begin to learn more about each other and meet up with more of Rei’s friends, until their party of two becomes a party of six. But their adventure isn’t without its fair share of troubles and bad news, as reports of brewing darkness reaches them from the far North, and their tale expands beyond that of a devious thief and a scholarly mage’s unfortunate meeting….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for having read this sample! I apologize for not being able to post it up in its entirety as 1) I am not done writing it and 2) as I have mentioned, I have plans to eventually be able to sell this story digitally once it is completed.
> 
> More announcements will be made when this story is finished and ready for sale.
> 
> In the meantime, please head on over to the [ReiGisa Celebration](http://www.reigisacelebration.tumblr.com) to check out what everyone has been making for Rei and Nagisa! Voting for the contest will be from July 31-August 4, so don't forget to cast your vote!
> 
> Thank you very much, and I would love to hear from everyone on what they thought of the story so far.


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